Church Development

The Disciple’s Growth Process

Soon-Hock Lim Leave a comment

growing plant

I had a great time teaching again at Harvest Generation Church’s Bible Study on 28 & 29 August, as I did the previous two times. The church is primarily made up of a bunch of passionate, hungry and teachable young people. Their attentiveness and responsiveness make teaching them such a great delight.

Over the two evenings I taught on “The Disciple’s Growth Process”, which included: The Call to Spiritual Growth, The Areas for Growth, and The Growth Process. One of the key points in the Call to Spiritual Growth is that growth is not automatic. Growth for a Christian can only happen if we “remain in the Vine” (Jn 15:4) and, when we use what the Lord has given to us. The first calls for us to draw from the resources of Christ, the second is like going to the gym and pumping iron—we work our muscles to grow stronger and healthier.

When I presented to the group the Areas for Growth, I think they were overwhelmed by the fact that there were so many; such as, Truth, Spiritual Disciplines, and Ministry Development. Furthermore, the breadth that these subjects cover are vast. For example, one of the spiritual disciplines that Christians engage in is prayer. Often the first things we learn about prayer is that we are to pray in Jesus’ name. We may also be taught to use the acronym ACTS to guide us and to give us a balanced approach to prayer. As we progress we may learn to pray conversational prayer, praying the Word and praying in the Spirit. Later on we may learn to engage in prayer warfare, prophetic prayer and ministering to people through prayer. There is so much more, from the elementary to the deep things of prayer. This gives us an idea of how deep we can go in the many other areas of our spiritual lives. God’s spiritual ocean is very deep. The question is, How deep do you want to go?

At the two evenings with HGC the prime focus of our study was on The Growth Process. Here I attempted to show them through a chart and with the use of a roadmap imagery how a clear process can help a disciple grow spiritually. Jesus did that with his disciples. Mark 3:14-15 tell us that Jesus trained his disciples (“with him”), empowered them (“have authority to drive out demons”) and sent them to do ministry (“send them out to preach”). While the details of the process will not be the same for all Christians, nonetheless, there is a process that the Lord uses to develop us.

A church needs to understand this. Besides providing an environment conducive for growth a church also needs to put in place a process in order to help Christians grow in their discipleship and ministry.

If you want to know more, I will be more than happy to conduct this seminar or tailor something suitable for your church.

Health Check

Soon-Hock Lim Leave a comment

I could have died long before I reached three-score years and ten. Worse, I could have become a vegetable lying in bed waiting to die. A health check showed that I had two arteries blocked at 90%. I had no symptoms of heart problems, and if not for my wife’s insistence for a health test when I turned 50, I would have just ignorantly carried on until it was too late.

stethoscope_and_heartshapedChurches, like individuals, also need to have a health check. A church that is not doing well might be oblivious of it. There may not be any clear indicative symptoms. Maybe the leaders are blind to them, or in denial. Perhaps they are too close to the situation to see the problems, or their vested interests prevent them from doing so.

Over a span of 30 years in the pastoral ministry, I have observed that most of our churches are not healthy. Furthermore, pastors and church leaders do not do a health check to determine the condition of their church. Most have never thought of it. Some don’t want to. They may not say it, but they don’t want to “face the brutal facts”.

(An excerpt from Before ER: A Call to Church Health by Lim Soon Hock)

Church Health

Soon-Hock Lim Leave a comment

All healthy living things grow automatically. You don’t have to do a lot more than to keep them healthy. The reverse is just as true; unhealthy ones won’t. Ill health depletes energy, stunts growth, and may even cause fatality.

Healthy-Church 2Similarly with the church; because the church is a living thing (the Body of Christ). Hence, church health is strategic to church development. The question then, is: What must we do to ensure that our church is in good condition?

The church must work on its health. If it is not healthy, whatever we try to do will fail. At best we may experience transient euphoria but without long-term results. However, if we work on the health of the church, especially in the critical areas, we will see lasting results and growth.

In the study of church development, church health is not a new concept. Megachurch pastors like Rick Warren (Saddleback, Purpose Driven Church [PDC]), church consultants like Christian Schwarz (Natural Church Development), and church growth proponents like Peter Wagner have long been advocates of church health. However, it has not been taken very seriously by Malaysian churches. It is not well understood and has hardly been incorporated into our churches’ DNA, structure and strategies.

A church may have adopted the PDC model with its five purposes including its development process from Membership to Missions and its strategy to take people from Community to Core. However, it fails to realise that the underlying concept of PDC is about being a healthy church. It may incorporate one or more of PDC components. But the objective is to add or replace existing programmes, and not because the leaders think that it will contribute to the wellbeing of the church. There must be a paradigm shift. We must first think “church health”. Then, we look at what we need to do to improve the condition of the church.

(An excerpt from Before ER: A Call to Church Health by Lim Soon Hock)